Job tide beginning to turn?

Peter Morici, a professor of international business at the University of Maryland, writes that economists are hopeful that the March employment report that will be published Friday will show an increase after the loss of 36,000 jobs in February. He says:

For March, the consensus of forecasters expects a 200,000 jobs gain, though estimates range from a loss of 40,000 jobs to a gain exceeding 300,000 . . . Let’s hope the optimists have it right, and the economy can dodge a double dip recession.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department on Monday reported the fifth straight monthly increase in consumer spending, the engine that drives the economy. That is a hopeful sign but as the Christian Science Monitor observed, “inflation-adjusted incomes have been relatively stagnant for six months” as the economy waits for job creation to pump more money back into the system and sustain the recovery that is struggling to get underway.